At the time of Independence, Anant Maral Shastri was the first Editor of Aajkal, the popular Hindi magazine published by the Publications Division, Government of India. The circulation figure of the Independence Day edition of Aajkal was more than 1.50 lakh. Famous litterateur Manmath Nath Gupta was the Deputy Editor of Aaajkal in August 1947 and renowned poet Harivansh Rai Bacchan was a regular contributor to this magazine.

In 1949, Anant Maral Shastri was selected by the State Public Service Commission and appointed as Director Information, Publicity and Braodcasting in the erstwhile Madhya Bharat State. Two major cities Indore and Gwalior jointly shared the status of the capital of Madhya Bharat and the erstwhile Maharajas – Jiwajirao Scindia of Gwalior and Yashwantrao Holkar of Indore were the Rajpramukhs of this State. Shastri was appointed in the pay-scale of Rs. 950-1000-1100 per month through the direct recruitment process. The maximum pay-scale of Secretaries in Madhya Bharat at that stage was Rs. 750 per month. When Shastri was Director Information and Publicity in Madhya Bharat, famous litterateur Ramdhari Singh Dinkar was Deputy Director Information and Publicity in Bihar, Govind Narain, who later became Union Defence Secretary and Governor of Karnataka was the Director of Information in Uttar Pradesh and Ali Yavar Jung, who subsequently became the Governor of Maharashtra was also Shastri’s contemporary as Director of Information in the Hyderabad State.

Anant Maral Shastri with his friend Durga Das, the legendary Editor of Hindustan Times, and his wife at Mandu, near Indore. This was in the early 50s of the last Century. Shastri is in background in a felt hat

In November 1956, at the time of the reorganisation of States, Central Province and Berar merged with Madhya Bharat, and a new State of Madhya Pradesh was created. This led to merger of different service cadres including Department of Information and Publicity cadre. Consequently Shastri was absorbed in the new cadre as Officer on Special Duty initially and later took over first as Director of Languages Department and subsequently again as Director of the Information and Publicity Department. In 1969, when the nation was preparing for the Gandhi Centenary celebrations , he played a yeoman’s role and oversaw the planning and execution of the publicity related to this historic event. He also worked over-time to ensure the first major reorganisation of the State Information and Publicity Department. It was due to this initiative that a large number of new posts were created at all levels, there was large-scale recruitment and serving officers also received quick promotions. Within a short span of time, officers working for a long period as Assistant and Deputy directors with no avenue for promotion, became Additional Directors and head of Department. Hanuman Prasad Tiwari and Amba Prasad Shrivastava, both experts , were among those Cadre officers who benefited from the reorganisation process and became Directors of Information and Publicity in Madhya Pradesh. Shastri was a towering figure and a major credit for all the initial nurturing and shaping of the “Publicity Department ” in its growing years which has made the Department a great institution today, goes to him.

Anant Maral Shastri with Marshal Tito. The former Maharaja of Gwalior Jiwajirao Scindia is on extreme left.

Rabindra Bhawan in Bhopal. It was built to mark the Centenary of the great poet Rabindranath Tagore.

Dr Shankar Dayal Sharma, who rose to become the President of India, Pandit Dwarka Prasad Mishra, chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh and Kunji Lal Dubey, the first Speaker of MP Assembly and Anant Maral Shastri, were in the Rabindra Centenary Committee

Renowned Freedom fighter, scholar politician, and a strong willed chief minister of Madhya Pradesh in the decade of 60s of the last Century, Pandit Dwarka Prasad Mishra, who was also called the Chanakya of Indian politics in the post Lal Bahadur Shastri era, wrote this on the first copy of his mahakavya (epic) Krishnayan, which he presented to Anant Maral Shastri in 1946.

The cover of Raghu Vansh, epic by Mahakavi Kalidasa. It was translated from Sanskrit to Hindi by Anant Maral Shastri and published by the State Government. It was presented on behalf of Madhya Pradesh government to the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru when he came to inaugurate the national Kalidasa Samaroh at Ujjain.

Anant Maral Shastri (2nd from right) is seen receiving Dr. Karan Singh at Bhopal airport from where they drove together to Ujjain. Renowned Sanskrit Scholar and former Union Minister Dr. Singh was then the Rajpramukh (Governor) of Jammu and Kashmir. He was the Chief Guest at the national Kalidas Samaroh (festival) that year (mid ’60s). On extreme right is the then State Chief Secretary MS Choudhary.

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Newsroom24x7.com is edited by Lalit Shastri. He is is an Indian journalist, columnist, wildlife film maker, birder, and environmentalist. He is a former Principal Correspondent of The Hindu and a Special Correspondent of The Asian Age - two of India's leading English newspapers. He quit a corporate job to investigate the causes leading to the 1984 Bhopal gas disaster and subsequently became a full-time journalist. He has extensively covered from ground zero for The Hindu, the riots that followed the demolition of the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya and repeated attacks by Naxalite-Maoists in the Central Indian States of Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh.
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